Canmore will be the backdrop for an episode of one of Quebec’s most popular TV series, but for it to succeed, the local organizing committee needs passionate Canmorites to come out and participate.
La Petite Séduction, now in its ninth season, will film in Canmore on Monday and Tuesday (June 9-10), and Louise Létourneau, Business and Community Development at AFCA/Régionale Canmore/Banff, said francophone and anglophone residents are needed to show off their community pride and help seduce guest celebrity Frédérick De Grandpré, the star of two other popular shows, Mémoires Vives and Les Jeunes Loups.
La Petite Séduction is inspired by the acclaimed French-Canadian film La Grande Seduction. The English language version, The Grand Seduction, is now showing in theatres across Canada.
Both versions tell the story of a small island fishing community desperate to rise above the welfare cycle. As a way to provide jobs, the islanders push to attract a factory, but for that to work, they need to have a doctor in place and that is the central theme of the seduction.
The islanders will leave no stone unturned in their goal to convince the doctor to stay.
La Petite Séduction uses this premise, taking a Quebec celebrity to a different community, usually in Quebec, where residents have to charm that individual and make him or her fall in love with their community.
“When CBC Radio-Canada saw how the movie was such a huge success, they came up with the idea of a TV version, aired in the summertime only. This show attracts one million people every week because it is extremely special and charming,” said Létourneau. “It’s a funny show, everybody sings, everybody cries, everybody laughs.”
Based on an extensive background dossier about De Grandpré, the Canmore organizing committee – in partnership with the Town of Canmore and Tourism Canmore Kananaskis – had to come up with ways to charm both the guest celebrity and the viewers.
“It’s been airing forever and people every week tune in for that one hour show that makes them appreciate two things: the guest star is someone who is always known in Quebec and then the next thing is people look at this neck of the woods and it looks so charming and say, ‘It looks so fun I have to go,’ ” Létourneau said.
Each episode, as a result, becomes a tourism postcard that highlights each community’s unique qualities: its activities, setting and residents, all while ensuring it appeals to what the guest celebrity likes and enjoys.
It makes for what Létourneau called “an amazing tourism draw.”
“It’s a huge project that will highlight and promote our town. Of course, it’s amazing for people in Quebec to realize how we live with our neighbours in duality; living with our anglophone neighbours and having a francophone school and immersion school. But nobody in Quebec will believe what they’ll see and hear,” she said.
Létourneau added 4,000 francophones live in the Bow Valley. In Alberta, that number is 240,000.
Filming begins June 9 at 8:45 a.m. by welcoming De Grandpré to Canmore at Notre-Dame des Monts School. At 11:45 a.m., it all moves downtown until 2:15 p.m. Filming then goes to the Canmore Nordic Centre from 5:45-8 p.m.
On June 10, filming takes place at Quarry Lake (bring a picnic lunch) from 8:45-10:45 a.m. It moves back downtown from noon to 12:30 p.m. and then moves to Chinook, the public art sculpture standing on the south side of the Bow River, from 2:15-5:15 p.m. The grand finale and dance party will be held at Notre-Dames des Monts from 5:30-6:45 p.m. before wrapping up with a community celebration from 6:45-8 p.m.
Létourneau said everyone is invited, as the committee wants to see as many residents come out as possible.
The organizing committee is holding an information session in the Francophone Community Centre in Canmore at Notre-Dame des Monts School on Saturday (June 7) at 7 p.m. to provide more information on how residents can participate.
For more information or to volunteer, contact Létourneau at 403-678-0082 or [email protected]
The one-hour Canmore episode of La Petite Séduction will be shown on July 30 outdoors in the plaza in front of the Canmore Civic Centre.
Létourneau said that even though La Petite Seduction will primarily be in French, some of it would be in English given the nature of bilingualism in Canmore and the rest of the Bow Valley.
“In the end, we are promoting our town of Canmore as being the hottest place in Canada, this is what we are sending as a message. It comes through us, we are the vehicle, the end result is not coming back to the association, but coming back to Tourism Canmore Kananaskis and the Town of Canmore because that is what we are highlighting,” she said, adding along with being a celebration of francophone culture and language, it is also a celebration of community and bilingualism.
“We have an anglophone and a francophone school on the same grounds; that is a wonderful key message and we’re so proud.”
